
Glass. 
Book. 









A 



SERMON 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 

Abraham Lincoln, 



PREACHED AT MONSON, AT THE I NITED SERVICE 
OF THE CONGREGATIONAL AND METHO- 
DIST CHURCH] S, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 

NATIONAL FAST, 

June i , 1865. 
By CHARLES HAMMOND, 

Principal of Monson Academy. 




SPRINGFIELD: 

SAMUEL BOWLES AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

i86 5 . ^ 



' * ^' HHH">mfU I M i mMT f im M tTTWTt TH > f > > > H fffffffffff>»ffff» 



, 8 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



MONSON, June S, 1865. 
Rev. Charlf.s Hammond : 

Dear Sir, — It was the privilege of the undersigned to listen to your able dis- 
course, delivered on the day of our National Fast, on the life and services of 
our late lamented President Lincoln ; and believing that the views there ex- 
pressed are eminently just, and appreciative, we hereby respectfully solicit a 
copy of the same for publication. 
We remain, 

Very sincerely, 

Yours, 

F. ALVORD. 
D. N. COBURN. 
T. G. COLTON. 
H. P. SATCHWELL. 
JAMES TUFTS. 
CYRUS W. HOLMES. 
*H. LYON. 
CYRUS W. HOLMES, Jr. 
ALBERT NORCROSS. 



Monson, June 12, 1865. 

Gentlemen, — The sermon, which you have kindly requested for publication, 

is placed at your disposal. 

Yours truly, 

C. HAMMOND. 
To Rev. Messrs. Alvord, Coburn, ) 

COLTON, SATCHWELL, AND OTHERS. ) 



SERMON. 



II. Samuel iii. 34 : As a man falleth before wicked men, so fellest thou. 
And all the people wept again over him. 



The person referred to in the text, was Abner, a leader 
of Israel who perished by the hand of an assassin, and for 
whose death, the whole land was filled with mourning. His 
murder was the result of the bitter controversies of the 
time, which had divided into hostile sections, a people having 
a common history, a common religion, and common dan- 
gers. A long civil war existed between the house of David 
and the house of Saul — but David waxed stronger and 
stronger, and the house of Saul weaker and weaker, until 
the North and the South of the land of Palestine, ended their 
mutual strifes, by the election of David as the ruler of the 
whole people. 

Abner was chiefly influential in translating the kingdom 
from the house of Saul and setting up the throne of David 
over all the land. But he had barely accomplished his great 
work of union and conciliation, when he was struck dead 
without a moment's warning — and the joy of the nation, at 
the prospect of permanent peace, was turned to universal 
grief. 

At the great national funeral at Hebron, "the king himself 
followed the bier, and lifted up his voice and wept at the 



grave of Abner, and the people wept with him." And the 
king said, in his lamentation or funeral address to his ser- 
vants, " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man 
fallen this day in Israel." And then he justified his char- 
acter and motives, as upright and patriotic, and refuted the 
pretense of the assassin that Abner was treacherous and 
worthy of a traitor's death. He says, "Thy hands were 
not bound nor thy feet put into fetters," as a criminal should 
be — but, " as a man falleth among wicked men, so fellest 
thou " — that is, as an innocent man falls, or as the best of 
men may fall by the hand of the worst, so fellest thou — 
" and all the people wept again over him " as they heard the 
vindication of the king, and listened to his awful impreca- 
tions on the murderer and on all his father's house. 

When Mr. Seward was first told of the assassination of 
the President he said, "History is only repeating itself. 
Great revolutions and rebellions generate great crimes." 
We have seen in the history of Israel, one analogous in- 
stance — and in modern nations, crimes of a similar charac- 
ter have been committed — but who of us expected that 
such repetitions would occur in this land, that the roll of 
the American Presidents would be stained forever with 
blood, and that he must be the first victim, who was the 
mildest and most genial of them all — in whose heart there 
was "malice for none, with charity for all" mankind, whether 
friends or foes. And yet there on that honored list, begin- 
ning with Washington, the name of Lincoln stands, written 
in blood, as the memento of the most awful tragedy in the 
book of time. 

The shock first caused by this event, has in a measure 
subsided, though its impression remains, not to be effaced 
from the memory of living men. The great national funeral 
is past. The resting-place of the illustrious dead has been 
reached, by that procession which traversed great States, 
and gathered the populations of great cities in its countless 
train, and formed such a pageant of real mourning, as has 



never yet followed the remains of a king or conqueror to 
the tomb. 

Before the completion of these funeral honors, a quick 
retribution had intercepted the assass'in in his flight. The 
ancient maxim, that "though justice has a lame foot her 
step is sure," has in this case been reversed. For in the 
next instant after the perpetration of the crime, the foot of 
the criminal was lamed and the course of justice was fleet. 
What a marvelous vindication of the law, violated in the 
person of its highest, most revered functionary ? How like 
a miracle that the National Flag, hitherto but an emblem 
everywhere of the national authority, should in this in- 
stance, really, and literally, and instantly interpose an 
effectual obstruction, entangling the feet of the fugitive in 
its folds, making his escape impossible and his doom cer- 
tain, disabling him, by what must have proved a mortal 
wound, even though the ministers of justice had not over- 
taken him. 

The great Rebellion, having consummated its blackest 
crime, has suddenly vanished from the sight of the troubled 
nations, just as the Fury did, when having filled the world 
with discord, she relieved the heavens and the earth, as she 
sank into the jaws of hell in the vale of Amsanctus.* 

Meanwhile the whole American people are called this 
day, to consider the character and services of our late Presi- 
dent, whose untimely death not America only, but the whole 
world deplores. 

How can we even approach so great a theme, or begin to 
trace even the outlines of that influence in the world, caused 
by the life and death of such a man ? 

All we can do is to consider briefly a few of the thoughts 
the occasion itself suggests. 



* " ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago 
Pestiferas aperit fauces, queis condita Erinys 
Invisum numen terras coelumque levabat." 



And one remark, we venture at the outset, that human 
speculation is utterly unable to scan the purposes of Divine 
Providence in such a calamity as this. And yet, from the 
day of Mr. Lincoln's death, there have not been wanting 
those, who have presumed upon their ability to penetrate 
so profound a mystery. Some of the public journals have 
come to the conclusion, that on the whole the country is 
a gainer rather than a loser, in a change of the national ad- 
ministration, interpreting the will of Providence, to be in 
favor of sterner measures of retribution against the rebel- 
lious States, and thus allowing the greatest of crimes to 
become the instrument of overthrowing a policy of mercy 
and conciliation. Such a theory of the Divine purposes 
in the recent events, suggests darker questions than it 
solves. 

It is easy to see that the relations of the government to 
the rebellion, are greatly changed by so grave an event as 
Mr. Lincoln's death. If his death had occurred from natu- 
ral causes, it would in the present crisis of national affairs 
have been a momentous event — for it would have necessi- 
tated a new administration, and the chance of a different 
policy — though not the certainty of a different one. But 
his most unnatural death, may render a change of policy a 
necessity, thus adding new perils to those already existing. 
It is perhaps necessary now to talk of justice and nc; of 
mercy, for the reason that the murder of Mr. Lincoln, may 
have transformed, what seemed ordinary into most extra- 
ordinary traitors. 

But the character and fame of Mr. Lincoln can have 
nothing to do with questions of policy, which his own death 
has started. His administration -cannot be criticised as 
faulty, because of the exigencies of the present hour. Be- 
cause a severe policy is justifiable now, it does not follow 
that we needed such an one before he died. We must judge 
of Mr. Lincoln's character and policy by the circumstances 
of his own time. We know, that that policy in its time was 



approved by the American people. They determined by his 
re-election, their opinion of his fitness to hold the reins of 
administration — and there is no evidence now to show, that 
that opinion would have been changed, if his life had been 
spared. 

We remark again, that the administration of the Repub- 
lic in the darkest days of its history, shows that Mr. Lin- 
coln had the rarest executive qualities of a good civil ruler. 
He was a real ruler, not a ruler over-ruled. He was able 
to receive the aid of his cabinet without being swayed by 
it. " In the multitude of counselors there is safety," says 
the wise man, but whether he meant safety to the counsel- 
ors or the counseled, has been a question. That Mr. Lin- 
coln was his own ablest counselor, was one of his grandest 
qualities as a ruler. 

Every good ruler must meet exigencies of administration 
in peaceful times — when wisdom and promptness in a high 
degree, are requisite, but in times of disaster and civil war, 
such as have been witnessed rarely in the world's history, 
Mr. Lincoln's was equal to the duty of meeting the greatest 
perils, and of originating policies and methods of manage- 
ment never tried before. 

A weak ruler, invested with the responsibility of govern- 
ment instinctively turns to rules and precedents— but a 
man of wisdom and strength, values precedents only for 
the force of reason there is in them. He will have need of 
insight and foresight, to discern what is real and what is 
fanciful or false — to judge intuitively of the motives and 
passions and purposes, both of friends and foes — and to 
estimate correctly, all policies and artifices, all methods and 
instrumentalities. Through all the disastrous days and 
years of the long conflict, it was a gift of superlative great- 
ness in Mr. Lincoln to know just how much, and how little 
to say and to do. 

It matters not here to inquire how he became possessed 
of this great gift of practical wisdom. It is quite certain 
2 



10 



that he had it. We ask not, whether his executive powers 
were innate or acquired, whether nature or circumstances 
made him what he was. It is a vain question to ask what 
can a talented man do, without an opportunity, and it is a 
question nearly as vain, to ask whether an opportunity to 
do great things, can come to a man without talents. 

The " mute Miltons " and the " guiltless Cromwells " are 
nowhere found, save in country church-yards, where the 
imagination of the poet Gray found them, or in country 
schools, where there is always a large supply. The real 
Miltons and Cromwells, owe their renown to the inseparable 
connection of talent and opportunity, or if success in life 
must be reduced to a single element in the analysis of 
causes, it may be said, to depend on the tact of laying hold 
of chances or of turning opportunities to good account — and 
for doing this, what is called education sometimes helps 
and sometimes hinders, so that it is a hard problem to show 
the relation of education to life, in such men, as Washing- 
ton and Franklin and Lincoln. We know, nevertheless, 
that with comparatively few advantages of early instruction, 
they were able to cope with and easily surpass many, who 
had enjoyed the best chances of early training. 

A close observer, however, will be likely to discover, in 
all such instances, an actual previous training, which an- 
swered the essential needs of life-work so well, that the 
regular authorized steps and courses of study, as indicated 
by graduations, diplomas or other public recognitions, could 
not have been of much more account. 

We have heard that Mr. Lincoln, before he was thought 
of as a candidate for the Presidency, delivered a speech in 
New Haven, just previous to a closely contested State elec- 
tion, and that the students and professors of Yale College 
were among his auditors. His speech was so effective that 
he was waited upon by one of the professors, who in admi- 
ration of his skill, wished to know the sources of his power. 
A master jn the art of persuasion, wishes to take lessons of 



1 1 



the self-taught orator. He is puzzled as one of old was, in 
like circumstances. " How knoweth this man letters hav- 
ing never learned." 

The professor soon found, that Mr. Lincoln, like Cicero, 
knew the secrets of his art, and could give the methods 
and processes of his self-taught training, which, after all, 
had nothing marvelous in them, save the energy and the 
patience, and the success of the learner. He became distin- 
guished, as all learners in any study or calling do, by disci- 
pline and close attention, and by a determined will to real- 
ize his own ideal of an effective thinker and speaker. To 
be sure, he was not like other writers and popular orators 
in his style or address — and it is refreshing to meet with 
such a marked exception to the stereotyped pattern of 
rhetorical excellence, as we do in this case. 

One of his characteristics, was a wonderful brevity united 
with comprehensiveness. He was like Roger Sherman in 
this respect, who in his long career as a lawyer and judge 
and member of Congress, was never known to speak on 
any topic however important, more than fifteen minutes. 

At the Gettysburg celebration, Edward Everett was the 
orator. It was an occasion suited to the genius of the man, 
and he made one of his greatest efforts, modeled as every 
scholar expected it would be, after the classic funeral ora- 
tions of the great masters. Mr. Everett's address was full- 
of instruction and interest, and it had the common merit 
of great American orations, that it was very long. On 
the same occasion, President Lincoln delivered a speech 
of not more than half a page of printed matter, which, for 
fitness and force, for point and pathos, for all the qualities 
that makes words effective when spoken, or famous when 
written, shall go down to the future ages, as a gem of elo- 
quence unsurpassed by Everett or any of his peers. 

That Mr. Lincoln was brief in his public addresses, in 
his State papers and correspondence was one of his glori- 
ous innovations. Not affluent, yet how weighty were his 



12 



words, as in his emancipation proclamation and his last In- 
augural, a document of deathless fame. 

I have no patience with that opinion, which allows good- 
ness but not greatness to our late President. All admit 
that he was a man of talents, that is, of usefulness, but 
some deny that he had genius — much that has been written 
of him involves this view of his character. 

But Mr. Emerson's estimate is more just and comprehen- 
sive. " The weight and penetration of many passages in 
his speeches, letters and messages, hidden now by the close- 
ness of their application to the moment, are destined here- 
after to a wide fame. What pregnant definitions, what 
unerring common sense, what foresight, and on great occa- 
sions, what lofty and more than national, what humane 
tone. 

It cannot be said there was any exaggeration of his 
worth. If any man was ever fairly tested, he was. There 
was no lack of resistance, nor of slander, nor of ridicule. 

What an occasion was the whirlwind of war. Here was 
no place for a holiday magistrate, no fair weather sailor. 
The new pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In 
four years of battle days his endurance, his fertility of re- 
sources, his magnanimity were sorely tried and never found 
wanting. 

Then by his courage, his justice, his even temper, his fer- 
tile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in a he- 
roic epoch. He is the true history of the American people 
in his time. Step by step he walked before them — slow 
with their slowness, quickening his march with theirs the 
true representative of this continent — the pulse of twenty 
millions throbbing in his heart — the thought of their minds 
articulated by his tongue." 

But the crowning glory of Mr. Lincoln as a ruler, was 
his inflexible integrity. 

Strange indeed, does it seem, that moral uprightness 
should ever come to be considered as a disqualification for 



high official trusts — that a candidate might be really too 
good a man to be popular. 

In Washington's day, the words patriot and politician 
suggested the same idea. Now they signify ideas most op- 
posite. Previous to the war of the rebellion, the whole 
system of politics had become utterly demoralized by the 
" cankers of a calm world and a long peace." No man was 
elected to office by unsought suffrages except in the rarest 
instances. And when chosen, the candidate must pay for 
his place. The cardinal points of policy in every party, 
were to reward friends and punish enemies. 

But when scheming politicians fell out with each other, 
by accident, or rather by the direct interposition of Provi- 
dence, let us reverently say, a President was for once 
elected, who had virtues of the old Roman stamp — especially 
the virtue of sterling honesty. Hence the people gave him 
their unwavering confidence, and by that confidence he be- 
came strong in spite of the politicians. His presence in 
the seats of power, at the close of the venal administration 
of his predecessor, caused a dismay like that, when the 
money-changers were driven from the temple. 

When the war broke out, and fear and trembling every 
where was prevalent, it was the confidence of the people 
in the inflexible honesty of Mr. Lincoln, that saved the na- 
tion from despair — and prevented the success of the rebel 
cause, which otherwise would have been triumphant, and to- 
day the Confederacy might have been recognized among 
the nations with slavery as its chief corner stone. 

When we analyze the awful crime "which makes the land 
to tremble and every one to mourn that dwelleth therein," 
we shall find, that it is the virtue of the victim which makes 
that "offence so rank" a tragedy, unequaled in history, 
hardly in fiction. 

The reckless daring of the assassin, the unparalleled 
atrocity of the assault in the presence of dearest friends, 
and in a great public assembly ; the malice of the murder, 



14 

unmitigated by the least personal provocation, having, as 
its motives, the revenge of a cause utterly wicked when 
utterly hopeless, and the fiendish ambition of committing the 
greatest of crimes just for the name of it — the suddenness 
of the event, as if a bolt from the heavens had fallen from 
out the clear blue sky — these are tragic elements in the 
dreadful drama — but the fearfulest one of all — that which 
has moved the hearts of the country and of all mankind, as 
they have never been moved in the modern ages, is the moral 
dignity of the sufferer. He who fills the loftiest place, not in 
power only, but in the reverent love of the world for his 
goodness, must fall, though of all men, least deserving to die. 

This chief magistrate of one of the greatest and most 
powerful nations, whose triumphant re-election by his 
friends, and the unwilling homage wrested from his foes, 
had vindicated his first administration as one of unsur- 
passed ability — who had " borne his faculties meekly " and 
"was clear in his great office," must fall, as unforewarned as 
was Duncan in his sleep, and leave forever that post of 
honor and trust, which none could fill as well as he. 

To kill any man is an awful crime — to commit murder 
for pelf, for ambition is more awful still — but to destroy the 
guiltless because they are innocent — to blot out of being the 
best administrative talent in the land, that the light of wis- 
dom and goodness may be quenched, that the nations may 
be perplexed with confusion, that all men may walk in dark- 
ness in troublous times — what shall we say of a murder 
with motives like these — and just such a murder laid Mr. 
Lincoln low. And hence, comes the intensity of the na- 
tional grief, which is another tragic element in this great 
historic drama. Hence it is that his virtues have become 
pleading angels trumpet-tongued. 

" And pity, like a naked new-born babe 
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd 
Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
Doth blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
That tears do drown the wind." 



15 

It was a blow struck at all the good and true men of the 
world. It was not strange then, that for a time the hopes 
of all loyal hearts were dashed in utter disappointment — 
that apprehension of immediate peril, flashed with the 
dreadful news from one end of the continent to the other — 
that the gladness of the nation's most glorious victories 
was instantly quenched — that the voices of universal song 
were stilled by this visitation of overwhelming woe. The 
ancient prophecy was fulfilled to the letter : — " I will turn 
your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamenta- 
tion — and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, 
and the end thereof as a bitter day." 

" All things, that we ordained festival, 
Turned from their office to black funeral ; 
Our instruments to melancholy bells, 
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges changed, 
Our bridal flowers served for a buried corse, 
And all things changed them to the contrary." 

It is a ground of bitter lamentation, that the nation has lost 
a chief magistrate of the rarest administrative ability, and 
one who possessed the greatest public confidence, at a time 
when those forces of strength were needed, which practical 
wisdom and confidence only could give. 

Leaving out of the account the appalling circumstances 
of his death, no calamity so great could befall the nation, as 
a change of the chief ruler at such a time. When the ship 
of state is tossed upon a troubled sea, and the breakers are 
heard from off a rocky shore, it is perilous indeed to lose 
the pilot from the helm. It is a dreadful calamity to be 
obliged, at such a time, to try the fearful experiment 
whether his successor is of equal ability. 

The clouds are breaking away indeed, and the light is 
shining through them, and the din of war is hushed, and the 
flag of the Union waves once more over all the land ; but 
we are not free from danger yet. A work of pacification is 



i6 



to be consummated, in which all the States and races and 
generations, of those who are to dwell on this continent, are 
vitally interested. If peace hath its victories no less than 
war, it has its perils and defeats also, more perilous than 
war. 

After the long conflict, the land has rest, but it is, as yet, 
a troubled rest. All thoughtful men are perplexed with the 
momentous problems of the hour. There is a lull in the 
strife of material forces, and parties, and sections, and 
races. But the stillness may be like "' the silence in 
heaven for the space of half an hour," after the opening of 
the seventh seal, before the seven trumpets of woe were 
sounded. 

There are, in the now confused and upheaved elements 
of American civilization, antagonistic interests and preju- 
dices and principles and policies. Most earnest will be 
the strife of tongues and pens, as the era of interminable 
debate shall open, and the revolution, deep and radical, 
goes on, which shall change the ideas and customs, and 
sympathies and institutions, of all sections of the land, more 
or less. 

Now, who is sufficient for the mighty responsibility of a 
chief ruler, at such a time as this ? What power of per- 
sonal influence to secure the supremacy of the dominant 
party, long enough to allow time for great plans and meas- 
ures to mature themselves ? for new ideas and new institu- 
tions to become rooted, and grow and bear fruit ? 

Where can we look for a ruler now, who, by his prudence, 
by his moderation, by his benevolence, by his trust in God, 
shall be able to soothe the intense exasperations of those 
defeated in their darling aims, — to restrain the violence of 
victory in its triumph over the vanquished — to deal fairly 
and faithfully and honestly and justly — to temper mercy with 
rigor in due proportion, when so many have incurred the 
extreme penalties of justice — to lead great States back to 
their allegiance to the authority of law, of reason, of truth, 



17 

and personal conscience — to kindle once more the fires of 
a pure patriotism, on so many altars now cast down or aban- 
doned, or burning still with the unholy fires of hate and re- 
bellion against the best government the sun ever shone 
upon. 

There is no reason to doubt the lofty patriotism of the 
present incumbent. By the voice of the American people, 
he was appointed to stand in the place of the great leader 
we have lost ; and he ought and will receive the candid and 
cordial support of every friend of law and liberty in the land. 
And yet we must account the death of Mr. Lincoln, under 
any circumstances, by any causes, the greatest possible ca- 
lamity which could befall the country, at the present crisis 
of our national affairs. 

While his great ability to rule the State in time of war, 
has been shown, we believe that Mr. Lincoln would have 
won even a greater fame at the head of a peaceful adminis- 
tration. As in war, so in peace, would he have secured the 
first place in the hearts of his countrymen. We had fondly 
hoped that the glory of Washington was to be repeated 
once more in our history. But God in his inscrutable 
Providence forbids a recurrence of that glory which now 
seems destined for no American President save the first. 
Great as was Washington's glory in the field, it was greater 
in the cabinet. The Romulus and the Numa of our heroic 
age, were united in one person the greatest and the most 
fortunate in history, for he lived to win complete success and 
to enjoy its rewards in the homage of all mankind. But Mr. 
Lincoln, the leader of an epoch in the annals of his 
country, greater than the Revolution, died in the midst of a 
career of glory, which had it been completed, would have 
conferred a renown equal, if not greater, than that, which the 
Father of his Country enjoyed. He perished, as did the 
great deliverer of Israel, while yet in the Wilderness, though 
its perils seemed safely passed, not being permitted to enter 
the promised land, but only from that mount of vision which 
3 



i8 



he alone could ascend, to enjoy the rapture of one glimpse 
of its peace and rest, on the very day he died.* 

While we lament the untimely fall of so great a man, we 
know his influence cannot wholly die. He lived long 
enough to accomplish a work,f which shall affect the des- 
tiny of every race in all their generations hereafter to dwell 
under the sway of the United States of America. His 
name like that of Washington's, will ere long in every sec- 
tion of the Union be blessed with " perpetual benedictions." 

For the name and the fame of Mr. Lincoln will be for- 
ever connected with that civil war, in which the supremacy 
of the constitution was first called in question and settled 
forever by its unmistakable vindication. His renown will 
also be inseparably connected with the grand incidental re- 
sult of this civil war, the re-establishment of liberty for the 
whole American people, for all races, and for every section 
of the country. 

The value of our victory, consists not in the conquest of 
the material forces of the rebellion, but in the triumph of 
principle — in the utter annihilation of those political doc- 
trines which led to the direst anarchy. The Calhoun heresy 
of secession is extirpated. The great Nullifier is nullified. 
Our own Webster "still lives!" The National Union 
shall stand forever. 

The war just effded, will be the last under the constitu- 
tion for the defence of its authority. The dread experi- 



* It is said, that after a cabinet meeting held on the fatal day, in which a 
plan of conciliation and reconstruction had been approved, Mr. Lincoln rode 
out with his wife and during the drive, remarked that in view of public affairs, 
it was to him the happiest day he had seen since he came to Washington. 

t The prophecy of the Latin poet can never be better applied : — 

" Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira nee ignes, 
Nee potent ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas. 
Ore legar populi, perque omnia secula fama, 
Si quid habeat veri vatum prsesagia, vivam." 



19 

ment of resisting its power will not be repeated. The riv- 
ers of blood poured out, the wide waste of trampling armies, 
the loss of countless millions of treasure, for the defence of 
a government the mildest, the most beneficent the sun ever 
shone upon, will be beacons of everlasting warning against 
another rebellion. 

The generations to come must indeed be involved in the 
debt incurred in the great struggle ; but we shall transmit a 
most precious boon, wofth all its cost, to be the possession of 
all the future. 

The incidental result of the war, in the establishment 
of universal liberty, gives a value to the contest now closed, 
such as no words or thoughts of men can estimate. The 
direct object of the rebellion was to establish slavery forever ; 
and the inevitable result would have been universal anarchy, 
or absolute despotism. We aimed to establish the laws ; and 
the consequence of our success has been the removal of 
every vestige of slavery. We all know how intricate was 
the problem of American slavery before the war began. 
We know how the veriest axioms of political truth, as under- 
stood by our fathers, were denied, and that slavery was arro- 
gantly claimed as of divine ordination, and sanctioned by the 
teachings of the Bible. This theory of awful blasphemy, 
seemed about to be invested with all the dignity and energy 
which nationality could confer. But God interposed, and 
hurled the bolts of his displeasure against such monstrous 
impiety. He settled the great question, in the way John 
Ouincy Adams long ago said it could be settled — by the 
instrumentality of war — if the owners of slaves should ever 
presume to rebel. In their madness, they did rebel, and 
Mr. Lincoln, by his proclamation of emancipation, fulfilled 
the divine decree, while he invoked the " considerate-judg- 
ment of mankind." And thus have the ransomed of the 
Lord gone forth, with songs of triumph, from the house of 
bondage, while all the forces of oppression have been buried 
in the depths of the sea. 



20 



In the exultation of the hour we may forget that the de- 
cree of emancipation has brought liberty to more than the 
African race. It is really an era of liberty and light and 
joy unspeakable, for all men and all races and all nations. 
For the fetters of the slave chained the master to his chat- 
tel. The woe and wretchedness of the accursed relation 
has not been all on one side. It has been a reciprocal evil, 
greater even for the master than for the bondsman chained 
as they both have been together as a living body to a dead. 

" While the South held fast the negro in his bondage," 
said Prof. Parsons of Cambridge, " they accepted it with all 
its disastrous consequences, with all its effects on their ma- 
terial interests, on their political and social condition, on 
their personal lives and on their very souls. And because 
they accepted it at length they came to love it, and because 
they loved it, they could not see it was the very cause of 
their relative inferiority, and so they cast the blame of this 
inferiority upon our common nationality."* 

But that delusion is past or soon will be — and with it 
will go all the heresies of the nullification school, and all the 
slavery commentaries of Southern divines, such as the Pal- 
mers, and the Thornwalls. 

" The flocking shadows pale, 
Troop to the infernal jail, 
Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave." 

In this great conflict of principles, on the arena of the 
greatest civil war of modern times, Mr. Lincoln was the 
hero of a revolution of ideas and institutions greater than 
was the political revolution of which Washington was the 
impersonation. 

Now that we have succeeded in the mighty strife, even 
beyond all our expectations, because the Lord was on our 



* See address before the civil authorities of Boston, July 4, 1861, by Prof. 
Theophilus Parsons, of Harvard College. 



21 



side, we may hope for an interminable lease of the national 
life. We may hope that the people of all sections of the 
land, made wiser and more serious, by discipline and sore be- 
reavement, will have a deep and abiding sense of the value 
of good government, of the necessity of the National Union, 
of a disposition to regard the rights of all sections, and 
parties, and clans, and races. We trust that the people 
will feel that the stability of our times and of all times, 
rests on justice, righteousness, knowledge and virtue — that 
great and good men in all stations of official trust are the 
nation's greatest benefactors — that in God alone, in all na- 
tional, as in personal trials and sorrows, is our help and 
refuge — for " except the Lord keep the city the watchmen 
waketh but in vain." 



